


the asteroid that's overdue

by idaate



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: "wow mocha is going to write a happy birthday fic!!", Gen, Spoilers, you fool. you Fool. you Absolute Buffoon.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 13:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10617687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idaate/pseuds/idaate
Summary: [ MAJOR V3 SPOILERS ]“Together, right? On the count of one, two, three--”Waving their penlights, together the three of them yell “Happy birthday to the man famous even in space, Momota Kaito!” On the television screen, Momota’s spaceship crashes, and the camera displays his blood covered body on the floor. Saihara cheers the loudest.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is late for Momota's birthday...I'm so sorry my space boy
> 
> https://twitter.com/oumatxt/status/852615686090358784 I made a little sketch of the apartment as I was writing this in order to envision where everything was! You can look at this as you read along, if you'd like.

It’s awkward, for sure. Putting the cap back on is weird. The clothes from inside the game always felt weird, actually, whether they be a prop like his hat or his prison like uniform, black and white stripes coming so close together that they blur. 

Whatever - it’s not like he had to wear it for long. Saihara only wore the uniform on special occasions, after all. Well, special occasions and fan meetups, but the latter kind of came as a given. Who could resist the idea of taking photos with...well, Saihara would’ve said  _ one and only,  _ but he was far from the  _ only  _ Super High-School Level Detective. One of the few that ended up surviving, and probably the best out of those few, but, well, he digressed.

It was almost unfortunate that he survived the game, now that he thought back on it. His beautiful execution would never come to life, not  _ really,  _ not after he had spent late hours pouring over pages and made awkward sketches that the staff of Team  _ Danganronpa  _ had accepted with open arms. Surely, it was a waste that his efforts never reached fruition?

Complaining on online forums had helped his case, however, and several die-hard and  _ very  _ talented fans had starting working on an animation project that would detail the execution Saihara would never be able to experience himself. Apparently, they were also the one’s behind the fanmade execution for Ouma - a delightful display of chess pieces turning on their king, a treat to the eyes - so though it’d never be the same as the real thing, Saihara found himself looking forward to it.

He’d just finished smoothing down his uniform when the bell rings, and he rushes over to the door of his apartment. A quick glance through the peephole confirms that it’s not yet another solicitor or random stalker, but Yumeno with her backpack strapped firmly on. She peers up nervously from under the brim of her hat, tapping the doorbell once again. 

Saihara swings the door open. “Sorry for the wait, Yumeno!” He hums, but the phony magician shakes her head.

“Oh, it’s no problem.” She assures. “I was considering unlocking the door on my own, but...it would’ve wasted too much MP, you know?”

“Right.” Saihara agrees. “Harukawa won’t come for a while longer, as she’s off picking up the cake. She really splurged on this one, and honestly, I don’t blame her. I spent tons and tons of money on Akamatsu’s and Ouma’s birthday, after all. She can indulge in this one thing. But, anyway--” He shakes his head hurriedly, and motions to her. “Come on in! I’ve got some snacks set up and everything.”

Himiko smiles and does just that, her heels clicking against the wooden floor. She had long outgrown the shoes she had worn inside the game, and had instead replaced them for a sparklier, more exuberant pair. “Nice decorations.” She comments, pointing at the various balloons, most of which are purple and all of which have some sort of space theme.

“Oh, thanks!” Saihara says. “Some of it is reused from last year, sorry. I’m not super creative, unfortunately."

“S’okay.” Himiko yawns, glancing over at Saihara’s room and hurrying her step up a little to get past it. Saihara’s grateful for the subtly - it’s kind of a mess, now, with empty ramen containers that he never really bothered to put away strewn around. Instead, the redhead makes her way into the living room, a place with a couch that takes up half the room space.

The couch itself is draped with two blankets, one of which details an aesthetically appealing cosmos theme and the other of which is just a large print of Momota’s face. Yumeno raises her eyebrows at that, and Saihara wonders if she’s going to say something like “that’s new” or “maybe that’s going a bit too far” but no, she closes her mouth as quickly as she had opened it and sits directly on Momota.

“I brought some penlights.” She comments, pulling off her backpack and opening it. There’s a moment of awkwardness as she rustles through her bag and withdraws pulls out two plastic packets of penlights, one purple and one white, full of six each. “Ta-daa!”

“Nice.” Saihara whistles. “I don’t have something as fancy as those, but, uh, I’ve got some saltines?”

“I love saltines.” Yumeno agrees. “Shoving a bunch into your mouth all at once is fun.”

“Isn’t that...like, dangerous?”

“Mm.” Yumeno licks her lips. “I’d hex saltines forever if they somehow screwed me over.”

Saihara chuckles and withdraws a pack of saltines from within the kitchen, as well as three cups of microwavable ramen. He tosses the pack over to Yumeno, who thanks him, before beginning the ramen. It doesn’t take very long to prepare them, filling them with water and then popping them inside the microwave. It’s somewhat dim in Saihara’s apartment, especially the kitchen, so the little light from inside the microwave paints patterns on the kitchen tiles.

He steps inside the light, a curious and childish nonsense action, and wiggles his toes, taking them in and out of the light. He doesn’t have much time to play, however, because soon enough the microwave dings and he takes out the ramen. Right on cue, Yumeno begins coughing from the other room. Holding one of the ramen cups firmly in his hands, Saihara runs out, causing the hot water to splash onto him.

There’s Yumeno, with more saltines in her mouth than should be humanly possible. “Yumeno...” Saihara groans, and the girl spits them out amid her coughing fit.

“I’m out of MP.” She says. “Otherwise, it would’ve gone well--”

“Ugh, Yumeno.” Saihara snorts, passing her the ramen cup. “I get that you were brainwashed into that stuff insides the game, but shit is really different now, alright? Just...stop this whole magic thing. It’s kinda fucking annoying after a while.”

Yumeno stares at her cup, opening her mouth as if to respond, when the doorbell rings. Saihara spins on his heel, swinging the door open within seconds and forgetting to check through the peephole this time. He’s lucky, though, because there’s no solicitors but Maki standing there instead, a decently sized white box clutched in her hands and dressed in the slightly too small uniform she wore inside the game.

“Hey.” Harukawa says.

“Hey.” Saihara replies. “Is that the cake?”

“Yeah.” Maki opens the cover, revealing the cake inside before closing it. She does it quickly, so Saihara can only catch a glimpse of the cake, but he licks his lips in hungry anticipation anyway.

“I just made some  _ delicious  _ cup ramen, so you can have a little bit of a dinner before the cake. The trial isn’t exactly short, and we need to get through all of it, right? That’s part of the joy.” Saihara walks away from the door, towards the kitchen, and a couple moments later he can hear the sound of Harukawa shutting the door behind her. 

“You’re not wrong.” Maki finally says. “What kind of salt do you have on you?”

“Only regular tabletop salt. Sorry, Harukawa. No fancy himalayan crystal salt this time around.”

Maki curses under her breath. “Well, whatever. That’s fine, I suppose.”

After setting the cake down on the coffee table and grabbing the two remaining cups of ramen, Saihara sits directly in the center of the couch, next to Yumeno, who was still sullenly slurping up her ramen. Harukawa sat down on the other side of the boy, legs and back so stiff that Saihara was certain that if the breeze had been strong enough, her spine would’ve snapped. But, whatever. They were inside. There was no breeze there.

Grabbing the remote, Saihara turns on the television, the screen booting up before revealing the words  ‘DANGANRONPA V3: DISC 2’. There are three options on the main menu: ‘Segment IV’, ‘Segment V’, and ‘Segment VI’. Saihara scrolls down to ‘Segment V’ and clicks it. From there, he has to pick between ‘Normal Days’, ‘Investigation’, and ‘Trial’, from which he picks the lattermost of the three. Yumeno slurps up the last of her noodles.

“It kinda sucks that everyone didn’t die in the order they were born.” Saihara notes, leaning back on the couch. “Because this way, we have to watch the entire game out of order. Though, on second thought, that would probably be too convenient. And maybe there’s something charming about this way…? I don’t know.” He shrugs when his companions don’t verbally respond, and Yumeno leans against him. To his credit, he only flinches slightly. “What are you…”

“I’m drained of...energy.” Yumeno yawns, and closes her eyes. “Mmm...night.”

“Well, goodnight to you too, Yumeno.” Saihara sighs. “You’re going to be missing the trial, though.”

Yumeno doesn’t respond, and Harukawa begins to eat her ramen with vigor.

“Oh, feisty, are we?” Saihara raises an eyebrow, and the exisal on screen says something in Ouma’s voice. “Or ravenous. I’m not quite sure what the right word to use there would be.”

“I haven’t eaten for nearly twenty four hours, so you can shut your trap.” Harukawa mumbles around a mouthful of the ramen, and Saihara scoffs, though it’s filled with more concern than the girl would like.

“Not eating really isn’t healthy, Harukawa…!” Saihara hums. Harukawa does not respond.

 

.

 

Saihara takes another bite of the cake, swallowing the sickly sweetness down past the lump in his throat. “How old was he, anyway?” He muses. “In the game, I mean. They never revealed that info to us, and I don’t feel like they’re planning on doing it soon.”

Harukawa shrugs. “I was eighteen.” She states. “Not like that helps at all, does it.”

“Ah, nope.” Saihara agrees. “Sorry. But, for what it’s worth, I was seventeen. And I...believe Yumeno was sixteen?” He shrugs. “But yeah, not that it matters now, anyways. Six years changes a person. It can change them a whole fucking lot.”

“You say that like you’re talking from experience.” Harukawa raises an eyebrow.

“Well, aren’t I? I’m sure that the person from inside the game would loathe whom I’ve become. Not like I care, but,” Saihara taps the side of his nose. “it’s kind of a little depressing to think about.”

Harukawa sighs, twirling the end of her hair and looking directly at the television. She’s talking right now - on the screen, not in real life - and there’s some sort of final spur on how she’s the killer, not Momota, how she should take the punishment. Well, all’s well that ends well, it seems, because she was still alive, wasn’t she?

“Then don’t think about it.” She says tiredly. “Easy solution.”

The trial comes to an end quickly, and Saihara has to shake Yumeno awake. She yawns, stretches, blinks her eyes. “Did I miss the execution?” She murmurs sleepily. “Maybe I made my sleeping spell too strong…”

“Nope.” Saihara reassures. “The trial is just finishing up! I wouldn’t let you miss it for the world.”

“Mmm, thanks.” Yumeno sits up and fumbles with her penlights, moving the straps around until she’s gripping them. She turns them on, glances over at Harukawa and Saihara. “Well, what are you doing? You two get  _ your  _ penlights on.”

Obediently, the two of them holding their penlights. Saihara only has two, similar to Yumeno, but Maki keeps four clutched firmly in each of her hands.

“Together, right? On the count of one, two, three--”

Waving their penlights, together the three of them yell “Happy birthday to the man famous even in space, Momota Kaito!” On the television screen, Momota’s spaceship crashes, and the camera displays his blood covered body on the floor. Saihara cheers the loudest.

The adrenaline wears off soon, though, and once the attention diverts from Momota to Kiibo’s loss of an ahoge, Saihara reaches for the remote and pauses the screen. Yumeno turns off her penlights, and Harukawa holds hers awkwardly, unsure of what to do with them.

“Well, do you guys want to...like, I dunno.” Saihara shrugs. “The execution was kinda the peak, and the cake was pretty small so it’s mostly gone now...and, frankly, I’m kinda full right now. Do you just want to hang out for a bit, or…?”

“Sure.” Says Yumeno.

“No.” Says Harukawa, and stands up. “I’m going to be going now. Thanks for the party, but I have places to be.”

“Aw, leaving so soon?” Saihara pouts. “I’m not gonna force you to stay, but that kinda sucks. I was looking forward to hanging out with you two.”

Yumeno makes a small noise as Saihara stands up, stretching.  _ “Weeell,  _ I guess I’ll show you out. That’s only the gentlemanly thing to do, after all.”

Harukawa frowns. “That really isn’t necessary--”

“Oh, is it, now? Is chivalry dead already?” Saihara walks over to the apartment door and swings it open. “Ladies first, after all.”

The phony assassin takes several steps towards the door as well, into the small hallway, and then pauses.

“Uh, Saihara.”

Saihara glances back at Maki, removing his hat. “Yeah?”

“Can you call me…” She inhales and pushes a strand out of hair out of her face. “Call me ‘Harumaki’ from now on, alright?”

Saihara frowns. “Uh...okay?”

The girl deflates slightly, but she waves a dismissive hand. “On second thought, just forget about it.” She mutters, and turns away. “I’ll see you some other day, Saihara.”

“Well, same to you!”

Harukawa walks through the door, and Saihara closes it.

**Author's Note:**

> The other day, I found this piece of art https://twitter.com/inu_v3/status/851871218802216960 and thought that it was Saihara and Maki getting back into Danganronpa after the game, and were huge Momota fans. However, upon showing it to a couple friends, they all agreed that it was just Saihara and Maki being Momota fans, and that I was overthinking things, aha...and then I wrote this fic.
> 
> Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed!


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